“Thinking doesn’t stop”
…(part I cont.)….This seemed logical so I thought the eq. d(x)/d (t) = v could pour me out some information why cant we define the time as d(x)/d(v)…? This clearly shows out why velocity(relative motion) when there is no relative motion (dv = 0) time tends to infinity meaning the time interval or the basic time unit (where there is no relative motion) would be infinity or it is like the smallest time difference one can measure in a relative motionless space is infinity. This makes sense. But till now, I still don’t know whether am right or wrong. It seemed to work fine for me. Time from my point of view is defined by this equation – t = d(x)/d(v) ….This tedious discussion between my brain and my mind (though for me both means the same) made me mentally sick for few days!. After couple of days realized that nothing was quite wrong in my definition. Thank god! A big relief after an intense struggle!.
I couldn’t believe that ‘I’ could think!, rather than saying just think (which all can do) I thought that “intellectual thoughts” can pop in my mind too! That’s awesome! Then realized these thoughts don’t set me apart from all humans. It’s noting special, one just needs a curious mind and the patience to find answer.
Its sometimes very hard to believe that wired things make people think! And one such thing that gazed my eyes was – a spider eating a fly! Yeah that’s a common thing. Can you imagine a question from that?. In this context I would like to mention about one of the stuff that my physics prof. Mr.Ananthan told me the very first class I went, I really envy these people. They have such an amazing creativity. He said this about science and nature. “The entire nature and we humans are playing an hide and seek game, here we become the seeker. Nature “whispers” its properties (or its presence) to us in a silent way so that those who have the keenness can here it, and among them those who have the patience achieves in discovering the hidden secrets of nature- this game of hide and seek between nature and humans is called ‘SCIENCE’ and those who win the game are called ‘SCIENTISTS’” wow! That’s an awesome piece from the mouth of a genius!
As my prof. said, nature exposes it every secret to us, but it is very few who actually find it. Coming back to that spider eating a fly or a deer eaten up by a lion or a eagle eating a fish, I would say every living thing in this universe has its demon – except “us”, the intelligent creatures! Till the very existence of human race, it us nature and environment that selected the best suited species for its exist.
Let me start off with a simple theory of nature. First a small molecule came off, from which the simplest of living molecule evolved. It grew stages with tough competition and animals popped up. And everything came, bones evolved, eyes came up, the sense of touch came, sense of hearing came, taste came, and finally the Big B “Brain” came. This is where I think the nature opened the wrong door. Till that brain came into play, everything was under the nature’s control and now I think the nature is under our control. From the day the humans formed up, I think there is not a single evidence of genetic evolution. We humans have stopped the process of evolution. From atoms came molecules, from molecules came compounds ,..yeah a long chain. But wait! Let’s see where this game ends! From compounds came cells, from cells came organs from organs came humans and from humans came “?” Nothing but a question mark! Every species had its own time period to live and its own nature’s clock to exit this universe (to get extinct) but we humans are becoming the unprecedented creatures!. That’s not fair!. Dinosorous lived, polar bear lived and dosen’t live now, while tigers lived and is living but will not live in future (hope so !). But we lived, we are living and we still would live. This is not fair again! I think, if nature follows some rules then it should be our turn to get out of the game and allow our next species to evolve. So my next question is “(4) Are we humans hampering the biological process of natural selection or rather why is the process of evolution stopped within humans ?” is it not the nature’s responsibility to make the selection of what to live? But it is ‘we’ who are selecting it now. Instead of the environment making the most adaptable species exist, we are making or rather modifying the environment to adapt to our needs! There is something major going wrong right?! I still don’t know the answer for this issue!
To say it in short, am just amused by the human intelligence. Its such a miracle that we living creatures are made up of non living things!. That’s the beauty of this nature!. We are nothing more than a complex arrangement of molecules but capable of thinking, or rather we thinkers can create our own universe using our imagination. Wait ! Did I say “imagination”? yes! imagination! That’s the power of humans. While talking about imagination I remember one of the question I had for a very long time“(5) How do we know what others see or imagine?” ok! Can see your eyes blinking. Dint understand it eh?. I’m not sure whether I could communicate this question I have in my mind but still, let me give a try.
Let’s see what I am speaking all about.given a red color and asked "What color is this ?" what would you say? hmm! A silly one But just answer it !... you will say red.. right? Have you ever wondered why red looks the way it is? It is not that simple as you see. Its through basic sense that humans, or rather living things interact with nature. Seeing this red creates a sensation in your brain that makes you see it. But that sensation while seeing red is different form the sensation when you see blue. That seems obvious. Fair enough!. But let’s look at this situation. I see red and that creates a sense lets call it S1 and you see red and that creates a sense in you too and lets call it S2, it is not that obvious that S1 = S2..Or rather, to make it in simple sentence, its not fundamental that we both see the same color. What seems red for me may seem blue for you, but still you call it red because you were trained to recognize it as red when ever you are given that color. Its just a mater of nomenclature you are taught with, that makes you “sense” it as red.
Fine, the above argument seemed like a tough one to imagine right? Often in the physics lectures or discussions I attend, my prof. would say this “students should know what questions are to be asked and what questions not to be asked” this seems simple! But to my knowledge, the worst ever quarrel I have encountered in my mind is to branch up my questions into those two categories that my sir told. Often I end up mismatching those!. One such question I asked my sir the very first year was “(6) what is Energy”. In my good old days the only thing I knew about energy is that it equals mass times the velocity of light squared. Every one knows this!. But it took years for me to understand what exactly that equation given by a strange human mean. Actually came across this stuff when I was browsing one of the book in library named “A fight between energy and mass” I don’t exactly remember the author, but its one of thebrilliant books I have ever read ! Here it goes as I call it,
“Father of the equations”
E=mc2
Let me take up the scenario we had before this equation was found the present situation. Before this equation was found, for lighting up a city, we needed tons and tons (give a thought about the words I used now, will talk about this in next part! Frame your own question!)of coal, in fact coal used to come in trains every month for the power station to create electrical energy. Now guess what? We just need a small pocket sized container having Uranium atom that would make up all the coal that came in the train! It seems stupid doesn’t it?. Well let me get into some calculations with “real life numbers” with some approximations. Now let’s see what that E and m in the equations represents. E , here refers to the energy, but what energy?, m represents the mass, But what mass?. This equation tells us if a any body of mass ‘m’ is convert fully, by some means, into energy, the energy obtained is equal to the mass time the velocity of light squared!.
For example. Lets take the basic element H2 , let me see what I get when I convert 1 atom of hydrogen into energy. Let me do this simple junior college chemistry. Lets find how much does one atom of hydrogen weights
1 mole of H weights 1.008 g
1 mole = 6.02 x 10^23 particles (Atoms)
Mass of 1 atom = 1.008 g / 6.02 x 10^23 = 1.67 x 10^-24 g
That’s pretty small right? Now lets see what happens when we convert this into energy
E=mc2
=(1.67 x 10^-24 g) x (3 x 10^18 ms^-2)^2
=15.03 x 10^12 Joules
This is an incredible amount of energy! A Joule is not a large unit of energy ... one Joule is about the energy released when you drop a textbook to the floor. But the amount of energy in 30 grams of hydrogen atoms is equivalent to burning hundreds of thousands of gallons of gasoline!
If you consider all the energy in the full kilogram of water, which also contains oxygen atoms, the total energy equivalent is close to 10 million gallons of gasoline!
This is amazing!. often I have heard that “this equation tells us how energy and mass can be inter converted” this makes sense theoretically but does it makes sense in real life situations?. Lets see, in the above example I took, we got 15.03 x 1012 Joules of energy from 1 atom of hydrogen and now to get back that one atom of hydrogen we have to spend 15.03 x 1012 Joules of energy phew! Quite a big number ! isn’t it?. This is where people fail to understand the basic essence of a formula. Though every physicists speaks theoretically, practical reality posts a tough job for them. It is okay to state the equation as every one does, but as far as am concerned I don think it makes any sense. But remember I still dint answer the question what energy is!
Note: discussions about mass and charge would be included in my next part as I still have loads to think about them! Part III will be posted soon.
R.Santosh KumarPhysics lover,Tamil nadu,Chennai,Indiaph-9884229459
